Proverbs 21:25 ¶ The desire of the slothful killeth him; for
his hands refuse to labour. 26 He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the
righteous giveth and spareth not.
A literal view of these verses corresponds to
many verses before them. The lazy man or woman is driven crazy by their
desires, for which they will not work themselves. All day long they hunger for
things for which they will do nothing. The righteous man, however, and by the
contrast the slothful, lazy person is not righteous nor can be, works hard and
has money to give to those truly in need.
For Christians there are several verses that
come to mind regarding this subject.
Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no
more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is
good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
2Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you,
that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
Of course, this becomes a problem in a nation
where we have been led to believe that a college education and, therefore, not
working with your hands, is the highest good for us. For as our economy is
dismantled piece by piece by those with a global view so that in the 2008
recession experts told us that college educated men suffered a higher rate of
unemployment than even teenage girls, many of them, particularly over the age
of 35 and most definitely over 50, never to be employed again for a living wage
or salary, there is less and less to earn for our own basic needs and wants and
in order to help others. (from the Free Market pamphlet I received from the
Ludwig Von Mises Institute on July 5, 2011.)
The famous Jewish philosopher of the Middle
Ages, Maimonides, had a view of these verses with regard to wisdom that would
be applicable to the modern Christian in a spiritual sense. A Christian hungers
for a relationship with Christ that is full and rich so that he can experience
the Lord as a real person and not just an idea or a mythical figure. But God
speaks to the Christian through His words in the Bible as the Christian speaks
to Him in prayer. Sadly, the slothful Christian is too lazy to even open the
Bible. He wants a relationship with Christ by simply wishing for it, but he or
she is far too lazy to either read or hear God speak to them through His word.
Many of these slothful Christians won’t unite
with a body of believers to worship God and hear His word preached and won’t
even take the easy step of going to someplace online like sermonaudio.com and
listen to a classic sermon by Jonathan Edwards or some other preacher of old to
be enriched. Sloth in Christians with regard to hearing God’s word or reading
it is often as much about pride as it is laziness. Some Christians who don’t
have a body of believers, a church, to unite with are far too proud to submit
themselves to hear a preacher or to associate humbly with others to worship.
Often, the faith of the slothful Christian is the first
casualty of their laziness. Not establishing a sure relationship with the
Saviour, depending on their own imagination and will in victory over sin and
life’s troubles, rather than on God, leads to spiritual failure and despair and
often a rejection of God as having any relevance in their lives. Christian,
there are no relationships with anyone where you do all the talking and don’t
hear the one to whom you’re addressing your speech. Prayer without Bible
reading and hearing is like trying to have such a relationship where you do all
the talking but no listening.
Another casualty of the slothful Christian’s
laziness is sound doctrine. Because they will not submit themselves to hear a
good preacher, when they do read their understanding is influenced by every
whim of their imaginations. They wind up in heresies and confusion. They quote
verses that aren’t in the Bible but that some equally lazy Christian has told
them are there. They say things that aren’t true about God’s word and about
God, misrepresenting Him like Job’s friends did, and floundering in every
little storm of life that comes along, also deceiving and corrupting others.
Most of our modern heresies that came from the so called Second Great Awakening
in American history came from Biblically illiterate lightweights or men whose
worship of their own imagination and need to be admired and respected by
followers trumped their desire for the truth of God.
2Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
The lazy Christian foolishly believes that his
or her conscience is the response of God to their yearnings and pleadings. Yet,
because he or she refuses to read God’s word they don’t understand that the
conscience can sometimes be seared by sin and unresponsive to God (1Timothy
4:2). They believe that, apart from the Bible, that God has laid something on
their heart but as the English leader, Oliver Cromwell, noted in a famous
debate, much of what we call faith is simply human imaginings and fantasy.
All day long, the lazy Christian hungers for
God’s response but is too slothful to receive it. The righteous person not only
will hear and read God’s word and feed themselves but will spend their own
money to make it available to others, giving away Bibles and supporting
ministries that spread God’s word to those who would not otherwise have access
to it. Not only would the righteous person feed hungry people’s need for
physical food but their need for spiritual food as well.
Are you a lazy Christian? In that slothfulness
is contrasted against the righteous person we can see that you cannot be lazy
with God’s word and be pleasing to God.
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